Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (Collector’s Edition) Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 1.75/5 or 4.5/5

Plot Synopsis: After leaving their prom early, innocent Jenny (RENEE ZELLWEGER) and three other teenagers crash their car in the backwoods of Texas. In their search for help, they run into Vilmer Slaughter (MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY), a vicious psychopath with a mechanical leg, and his twisted family, including the serial killer Leatherface (ROBERT JACKS). As the group of friends struggles to survive the maniacal methods of torture, Jenny discovers the secret origins behind the family’s lust for blood.

Quick Hit Review: Insane. No other word than that to describe Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, utterly insane. Even days later, I’m still unsure whether this was good bad or crazy bad. The film’s notoriety is being the early works for Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey, and though it’s certainly not their finest works, McConaughey for his part was pretty funny, and even said his classic “alright, alright, alright” line…

I know The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 had its good share of insanity, and to be honest, it’s not a favorite of mine in the franchise (both old and the reboot series) but at least there was some stability and consistency in its insanity. With The Next Generation, it’s rather inconsistent in how the characters behave, not sure what McConaughey was doing and had just some dumb scenes like a “remote” fight between Zellweger and McConaughey with the character’s mechanical knee/leg being controlled by it).

The film was directed by Kim Henkel and some of the chaos of the film, and its script which he co-wrote, could be blamed on his inexperience as this marked his directorial debut (and unsurprising, his only feature film). Henkel co-wrote the original 1974 Texas Chain Saw Massacre with Tobe Hooper and had his hand in writing Hooper’s Eaten Alive, but has done little else outside of some credit on future TCM movies and something called Butcher Boys.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.5/5

This release comes with a matted slip cover and the interior cover is reversible with the film’s original poster artwork. Also included on the disc is the 94-minute director’s cut, though it was only in standard definition, thus I watched the theatrical cut which was in HD.

Audio Commentary by Director Kim Henkel, Actor Joe Stevens and Brian Huberman (behind-the-scenes documentarian), moderated by Phil Nobile Jr. (Director’s Cut only). This is a decent enough commentary, recorded just for this release and with a few participants, you do get a wide swath of information and stories from behind-the-scenes.

Interviews:

• The Buzz is Back (11:42) is a new interview with Director of Photography Levie Isaacks discussing his career and his approach to working on TCM: TNG.
• Marked for Death (16:01) – Actor Tyler Shea Cone (“Barry”) talks about the rise of the film industry in Austin and how he got the role, as well as working with his cast mates.
• If Looks Could Kill (19:03) – This is another new interview by Special Effects Creator J.M. Logan on his role working on the effects of the film.

Theatrical Trailer (1:38)

VIDEO – 3.75/5

AUDIO – 4.0/5

OVERALL – 3.0/5

Overall, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation is a film I genuinely do not know if I hated because it was bad or loved because it was batsh*t insane, though I’m currently leaning toward the former. Beyond that, it is amusing to see two future Academy Award winning actors in McConaughey and Zellweger in a sh*tshow like this, DiCaprio should be thankful his blemish was only Critters 3… This “Collector’s Edition” from Shout Factory offers up good video (albeit flawed) and audio transfers and an okay selection of bonus material.